Page:Aristopia (1895).pdf/19

 time, could not aid Gosnold in his protest. Their president, the vain, foolish, cowardly, jealous, greedy, selfish, and otherwise contemptible Wingfield, had weighed like an incubus on the colony for months, as Smith then said and afterward wrote, "ingrossing to his private, Oatmeale, Sacke, Oyle, Aquavitæ, Beefe, Egges, or what not," leaving the others to starve. At last the endurance of the colonists was worn out, and they deposed Wingfield and elected John Ratcliffe president; but the latter was little better than King Log. They lived on fish and crabs until September, when they managed to get some corn from the Indians. Instead of arriving in time to clear fields and plant crops in the spring and raise some provisions as they had expected, by ill luck and folly combined they were five months upon the voyage, consuming their provisions. Nearly all the men were unused to labor, and the necessary work in building their houses and planting their stockade in such a burning sun as they had never seen in England had broken them down. Then chills and fever from malaria and bowel complaints from bad food and water seized upon them and carried off more than half their number. Death had been more certain